Mathematics for Social Justice offers a collection of resources for mathematics faculty interested in incorporating questions of social justice into their classrooms. The book begins with a series of essays from instructors experienced in integrating social justice themes into their pedagogy; these essays contain political and pedagogical motivations as well as nuts-and-bolts teaching advice. The heart of the book is a collection of fourteen classroom-tested modules featuring ready-to-use activities and investigations for the college mathematics classroom. The mathematical tools and techniques
Mathematics for Social Justice offers a collection of resources for mathematics faculty interested in incorporating questions of social justice into their classrooms. The book begins with a series of essays from instructors experienced in integrating social justice themes into their pedagogy; these essays contain political and pedagogical motivations as well as nuts-and-bolts teaching advice. The heart of the book is a collection of fourteen classroom-tested modules featuring ready-to-use activities and investigations for the college mathematics classroom. The mathematical tools and techniques used are relevant to a wide variety of courses including college algebra, math for the liberal arts, calculus, differential equations, discrete mathematics, geometry, financial mathematics, and combinatorics. The social justice themes include human trafficking, income inequality, environmental justice, gerrymandering, voting methods, and access to education. The volume editors are leaders of the national movement to include social justice material into mathematics teaching. Gizem Karaali is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College. She is one of the founding editors of The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, and an associate editor for The Mathematical Intelligencer and Numeracy ; she also serves on the editorial board of the MAA's Carus Mathematical Monographs. Lily Khadjavi is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University and is a past co-chair of the Infinite Possibilities Conference. She has served on the boards of Building Diversity in Science, the Barbara Jordan-Bayard Rustin Coalition, and the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus.
Empower students to be the change—join the teaching mathematics for social justice movement! We live in an era in which students have —through various media and their lived experiences— a more visceral experience of social, economic, and environmental injustices. However, when people think of social justice, mathematics is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. Through model lessons developed by over 30 diverse contributors, this book brings seemingly abstract high school mathematics content to life by connecting it to the issues students see and want to change in the world. Along with expert guidance from the lead authors, the lessons in this book explain how to teach mathematics for self- and community-empowerment. It walks teachers step-by-step through the process of using mathematics—across all high school content domains—as a tool to explore, understand, and respond to issues of social injustice including: environmental injustice; wealth inequality; food insecurity; and gender, LGBTQ, and racial discrimination. This book features: Content cross-referenced by mathematical concept and social issues Downloadable instructional materials for student use User-friendly and logical interior design for daily use Guidance for designing and implementing social justice lessons driven by your own students’ unique passions and challenges Timelier than ever, teaching mathematics through the lens of social justice will connect content to students’ daily lives, fortify their mathematical understanding, and expose them to issues that will make them responsive citizens and leaders in the future.
In this unique collection, more than 30 articles show how to weave social justice issues throughout the mathematics curriculum, as well as how to integrate mathematics into other curricular areas. Rethinking Mathematics offers teaching ideas, lesson plans, and reflections by practitioners and mathematics educators. This is real-world math-math that helps students analyze problems as they gain essential academic skills. This book offers hope and guidance for teachers to enliven and strengthen their math teaching. It will deepen students' understanding of society and help prepare them to be critical, active participants in a democracy. Blending theory and practice, this is the only resource of its kind.
"This collection of original articles is the start of a compelling conversation among some of the leading figures in critical and social justice mathematics, a number of teachers and educators who have been inspired by them-and who have inspiring stories of their own to tell - and any reader interested in the intersection of education and social justice. An important read for every educator, this book shows how to teach mathematics so that all students are given the tools they need to confront issues of social justice today and in the years ahead"--page [4] of cover.
This book addresses the combination of pedagogical, curricular, and institutional commitments necessary to create and sustain diversity on campus. Its premise is that the socially just classroom flourishes in the context of a socially just institution, and it invites faculty and administrators to create such classrooms and institutions.This book grew out of a project – involving deans and directors of teaching centers and diversity offices from six institutions – to instigate discussions among teachers and administrators about implementing socially just practices in their classrooms, departments, and offices. The purpose was to explore how best to foster such conversations across departments and functions within an institution, as well as between institutions. This book presents the theoretical framework used, and many of the successful projects to which it gave rise.Recognizing that many faculty have little preparation for teaching students whose backgrounds, culture, and educational socialization differ from theirs, the opening foundational section asks teachers to attend closely to their and their students’ relative power and positionality in the classroom, and to the impact of the materials, resources and pedagogical approaches employed. Further chapters offer analytical tools to promote inquiry and change.The concluding sections of the book demonstrate how intra- and inter-institutional collaborations inspired teachers to rise to the challenge of their campuses’ commitments to diversity. Among the examples presented is an initiative involving the faculty development coordinator, and faculty from a wide range of domains at DePauw University, who built upon an existing ethics initiative to embed social justice across the curriculum. In another, professors of mathematics from three institutions describe how they collaborated to create socially just classrooms that both serve mathematical learning, and support service learning or community-based learning activities. The final essay by a student from the Maldives, describing how she navigated the chasm between life in an American college and her family circumstances, will reinforce the reader’s commitment to establishing social justice in the academy.This book provides individual faculty, faculty developers and diversity officers with the concepts, reflective tools, and collaborative models, as well as a wealth of examples, to confidently embark on the path to transforming educational practice.
Mathematics for Social Justice: Focusing on Quantitative Reasoning and Statistics offers a collection of resources for mathematics faculty interested in incorporating questions of social justice into their classrooms. The book comprises seventeen classroom-tested modules featuring ready-to-use activities and investigations for college mathematics and statistics courses. The modules empower students to study issues of social justice and to see the power and limitations of mathematics in real-world contexts of deep concern. The primary focus is on classroom activities where students can ask their own questions, find and analyze real data, apply mathematical ideas themselves, and draw their own conclusions. Module topics in the book focus on technical content that could support courses in quantitative reasoning or introductory statistics. Social themes include electoral issues, environmental justice, equity/inequity, human rights, and racial justice, including topics such as gentrification, partisan gerrymandering, policing, and more. The volume editors are leaders of the national movement to include social justice material in mathematics teaching and jointly edited the earlier AMS-MAA volume, Mathematics for Social Justice: Resources for the College Classroom. Gizem Karaali is Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College. She is a past chair of the Special Interest Group of the MAA on Quantitative Literacy (SIGMAA-QL). She is one of the founding editors of The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, senior editor of Numeracy, and an associate editor for The Mathematical Intelligencer; she also serves on the editorial board of the MAA's Classroom Resource Materials series. Lily Khadjavi is Professor and Chair of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University and is a past co-chair of the Infinite Possibilities Conference. In 2020 she was appointed by the California State Attorney General to the Racial and Identity Profiling Act Board, which works with the California Department of Justice. She currently serves on the editorial board of the MAA's Spectrum series and the Human Resources Advisory Committee for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley.
In this book, nationally renowned scholars join classroom teachers to share equity-oriented approaches that have been successful with urban high school mathematics students. Compiling for the first time major research findings and practitioner experiences from Railside High School, the volume describes the evolution of a fundamentally different conception of learners and teaching. The chapters bring together research and reflection on teacher collaboration and professional community, student outcomes and mathematics classroom culture, reform curricula and pedagogy, and ongoing teacher development. Mathematics for Equity will be invaluable reading for teachers, schools, and districts interested in maintaining a focus on equity and improving student learning while making sense of the new demands of the Common Core State Standards. Book Features: Core principles of an equity-centered mathematics program. Examples of how to focus and organize the collaborative work of a math department to develop a shared pedagogy. Student experiences with an equity pedagogy that focuses on building perseverance, flexibility in thinking, and deep conceptual understanding. Connections between reconceptualizing learners and teaching, and achieving deep mathematics learning and equitable outcomes. Contributors include: Jo Boaler, Ilana Seidel Horn, Judith Warren Little, and Rachel Lotan. “Mathematics for Equity provides a kaleidoscopic view, in the voices of teachers, researchers, and students themselves, of one of the nation’s most ambitious and successful attempts at teaching mathematics for equity. It shows what it takes to create a climate that supports students and teachers in engaging in meaningful mathematical activity—and, alas, how vulnerable such environments are to the wrong kinds of ‘accountability.’ Read it and learn.” —Alan H. Schoenfeld, University of California at Berkeley “Want to fix what's wrong with mathematics instruction in your school? Read this book with your colleagues and do what it inspires you to do. Written by the brave teachers and former students who did it, as well as researchers.” —Phil Daro, writing team, Common Core Standards, Strategic Education Research Partnership
In his follow-up to the groundbreaking Maththatmatters, David Stocker gives us Maththatmatters2 a collection of 50 brilliant lessons for grades 6-9 that link mathematics and social justice. For educators keen to provide rich learning opportunities and differentiated content that engages students with their lived realities, these lessons are sure to spark meaningful discussions...and action.
The issue of social justice has been brought to the forefront of society within recent years, and educational institutions have become an integral part of this critical conversation. Classroom settings are expected to take part in the promotion of inclusive practices and the development of culturally proficient environments that provide equal and effective education for all students regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, and disability, as well as from all walks of life. The scope of these practices finds itself rooted in curriculum, teacher preparation, teaching practices, and pedagogy in all educational environments. Diversity within school administrations, teachers, and students has led to the need for socially just practices to become the norm for the progression and advancement of education worldwide. In a modern society that is fighting for the equal treatment of all individuals, the classroom must be a topic of discussion as it stands as a root of the problem and can be a major step in the right direction moving forward. Research Anthology on Instilling Social Justice in the Classroom is a comprehensive reference source that provides an overview of social justice and its role in education ranging from concepts and theories for inclusivity, tools, and technologies for teaching diverse students, and the implications of having culturally competent and diverse classrooms. The chapters dive deeper into the curriculum choices, teaching theories, and student experience as teachers strive to instill social justice learning methods within their classrooms. These topics span a wide range of subjects from STEM to language arts, and within all types of climates: PK-12, higher education, online or in-person instruction, and classrooms across the globe. This book is ideal for in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, social justice researchers, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how social justice is currently being implemented in all aspects of education.
